Awesome Made Mundane
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: This was meant to be a short drabble of Kai using Spinjitzu to soothe a fussy infant Mina, but they didn't want the story to end there; Oh no, they wanted to be bitter with each other instead. But I digress, have fun!


Kai couldn't believe how many home movies they had racked up of Mina when she was a young kid-let. What was even more amazing was that he was just finding out that these videos existed. Nya hid them from him, of course. His sister had a rather fluctuating relationship with his charge, so to say that he was surprised when he found the tapes at her house would have been an understatement.

One of the tapes in particular made him hate the idea that the home videos existed at all. No, it wasn't the one where Mina was running around the house claiming to be Chase McCain and beating up baddies. As cute as it was, it wasn't the one that made him angry.

Almost naturally, Jay was the one holding the camera in this movie.

"Alright, okay. Is this thing on?" Jay said as if he was on a B-list prank show as he struggled to get the camera focused on his face. "Alright, so the kid has been fussy for a few days at we're at a loss as to how to calm her down. Like seriously, none of us could calm that kid down worth jack. But Kai went in there about five minutes ago and told us not to bother him. Well... being the naturally curious and handsome ninja I am, I snuck a tiny little peak and what I saw... well, let's just say I'm going to record it to blackmail Kai later. It will likely be burned after that..."

Without further ado, the camera shook violently as Jay swiveled it around to peek into a crack in the door in front of him. It took a moment for the camera to focus, but even before it could what was happening inside was perfectly clear;

Kai was telling an infant Mina the story of Ninjago while using Spinjitzu for a short period of time after every other sentence. It seemed rather effective, considering the babe was asleep... or unconscious. There's a reason why children aren't able to accomplish the mastery of Spinjitzu.

"And the Light has prevailed in Ninjago since then," Kai said soothingly before going into a Spinjitzu tornado. "Some folks say that the Overlord still exists, slowly plotting his revenge... But if he does, the Ninja will rise again to protect the ones they love the most." (Kai went into the Spinjitzu tornado again.) "They have nothing to lose but each other after all..."

With the story finished Kai looked down at the babe and smiled. It was an awkward thing, and perhaps unintentional, but it was enough to make Jay coo absentmindedly at the display. Kai shot a hard look at the door.

"Uh oh." Jay said quickly as he tried to hide the camera. From a distorted view as the camera was being shuffled, Kai walked up to the door with Mina crooked in his arm.

Jay must have dropped the camera when Kai opened the door because the viewer was then treated with a wonderful shot of Kai's very dirty socks and the lower half of his red workout pants.

"Can I help you?" Kai asked in a hushed tone so he didn't wake up the baby but still illustrated how angry he really was at the Blue Ninja.

For a moment, Jay struggled to say something that could have gotten him out of trouble- but nothing was coming out.

"What's that?" Kai then asked, using a foot to point to the fallen camera. The sounds from Jay's throat made it apparent he knew he was dead no matter how he answered the question.

"Start running." Kai then said, "Because when I put this kid down, you're a dead man."

Instantly, the sounds of Jay skirting away made itself heard on the video. Kai then gave a satisfied snort then walked back to the babe's crib and gently placed her inside.

"Don't worry kid," he told her, "I'll hit him twice as hard for both of us."

The video then cut off from there as Kai began to walk back toward the door.

Meanwhile, in the present day as the tape ended, having the old memories of that day reminded Kai how he felt that Jay should have been hit a few more times. Not that he had gone easy on him either.

"Hey Kai...?" the young voice of a preteen Mina said as she peeked into the room. Kai took a deep breath out before turning to face her.

"What's up kid?" he asked as he turned to television off without looking at it.

"I have a project for school, something about the history of Spinjitzu I think. Can you help me with it? I asked Zane but he was busy making dinner..."

Kai looked at the kid and smirked a bit.

"Sure." he agreed.

. . .

"I don't get it." Mina later said as she and Kai sat at the table going over her work.

"What don't you get? We're almost done."

"I don't get how the only ones that truly know about the Spinjitzu techniques were chosen by a grand master and were then supposed to pass the technique to those they found able to fully appreciate the practice."

"So?"

"Well... you and Zane know a lot about Spinjitzu, more than what I think my history teacher does. When Jay comes over, it's like Spinjitzu is the only thing he will talk about without restraint around his wife. I could be wrong, but Spinjitzu is the only thing that can get Cole really talking too..."

For a moment, the child paused as her thoughts whirled around in her brain. Kai's heart slowly began to sink into his stomach as he realized that she was about to ask the inevitable.

"Do you four know Spinjitzu?" Mina asked, looking at Kai with eyes brimmed with curiosity and innocence. For the longest time, Kai just looked at her at a loss for words.

Secrets were not uncommon, lies filled in the gaps where the child demanded answers. But lies can only last for so long before collapsing...

"No." he finally said. "We just learned a lot about the technique when we were traveling together. Our mentor knew Spinjitzu, but he did not think we were worthy of knowing the technique."

"Who was your mentor? According to my history teacher, there were eight masters of Spinjitzu- four of which are dead now."

Again, words were trapped in Kai's throat when he found he could not find a good answer.

A good lie.

Words were trapped in Kai's throat when he found he could not find a good lie to cover the last one.

Finally, he tried to change the subject.

"What does this have to do with your homework anymore?" he asked her with a half forced smile. Mina looked at him for a moment, fully realizing what he was doing. She wasn't dense... or too dense, any way.

"Even if I did know Spinjitzu," Kai then said, "I have no reason to use it. I can either practice Spinjitzu or raise you- I can't do both. They have equal responsibility and consequences, my energy can not be focused on both or one will be ignored regardless of how well I can succeed in managing my time. You understand, don't you kid?"

The preteen looked back at her work and gave an indignant little sound.

"My homework's done, thanks Kai." she said shortly as she picked her stuff up.

"Any time kid." he said back with a small smile. Mina refused to look at him as she finished cleaning up and started to walk out of the room. However, Kai felt unsatisfied with just letting her walk away.

"Hey... Mina." he said as she walked out the door. "Everything we do is to protect you. If you were ever in trouble, you know we'd do all we could to get you back. You know that right?"

For a moment, the preteen lingered at the door.

"I know." she finally said in a quiet voice. "But it still doesn't give you the right to lie."


End file.
